sinusvssitesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“sinus” and “sites” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,185
“sinus” frequency rank
#1,403
“sites” frequency rank
27588
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sinus sites
Definition Formation anatomique creuse, liquidienne ou pneumatique. Pluriel de site.

Where the eye mixes sinus and sites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
sinus
5 ch
sites

Look-alike desk: sinus vs sites

A purely visual mix-up. sinus (\si.nys\) and sites (\sit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sinus is recorded at frequency rank #26,185, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.nys\. sites is at rank #1,403, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sit\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 27588, this pair ranks #328,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sinus vs sites

Shared letters: is. Private to "sinus": nu. Private to "sites": et.

"sinus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sinusisnus · sinnus · sinsu · sinuss · siuns · snius · ssinus
  • sitesistes · siets · sitess · sitse · sittes · ssites · sties

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sinus" for "sites" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\si.nys\ versus \sit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sinus" or "sites"?
"sites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,403 in our French list, against #26,185 for "sinus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "sinus" and "sites" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sinus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sinus" and "sites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sinus vs sires". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #328,026 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list